Posts Tagged ‘Willamette Valley’

Most of our guests and everyone in the Willamette Valley will agree that our most distinguishing feature is our extraordinary panoramic views from atop the Hill. However, I suggest that our Innkeepers, Becky and Colleen, may be our most distinguishing feature. While our guests always leave mesmerized by their experience with us, it is the personal care that Becky and Colleen take with each and every guest that truly sets us apart.

Nestled at the heart of Willamette Valley’s thriving wine country is the charming and historic town of McMinnville. On the surface, McMinnville may appear to be a sleepy little town without much to offer for a weekend getaway to the Willamette Valley. If you make that assumption, however, you’ll be wrong. McMinnville is actually a fascinating mix of ambition, community spirit and passion about the businesses that populate its streets, giving it the feel of a large city, complete with the all the charm you want from a small town. In fact, it is this unique combination of attributes that makes McMinnville a great place for couples to take a Willamette Valley getaway. Join us in McMinnville, and savor in our fantastic wines, gourmet foods, beautiful surroundings, and the fresh air you expect out of an Oregon retreat. Stay in our luxurious accommodations at Youngberg Hill Vineyards, where you’ll experience a romantic gem nestled atop a hill in Oregon’s Wine Country. Experience what it feels like to be pampered by our exceptional staff as you relax, unwind, and enjoy the views of our 22 acre organic vineyard, the Coast Range, Mount Jefferson, Mount Hood and the Willamette Valley.

A few weeks after losing our beloved dog Holly to cancer, we decided to look for a new friend for Dale, and gave dog adoption a try. Dale really missed Holly and spent every day sad and moping. The girls wanted a puppy, as they had never had one. We started looking for a good, mixed breed puppy, but didn’t have much luck. While researching online, Wayne discovered that the local animal shelter had a dog available for adoption that looked interesting – Archer, a one year old male Queensland Heeler, who was supposed to be good with kids and friendly.

I went to the animal shelter with the kids to visit Archer, and we brought along a list of characteristics that we hoped to find in our ideal new pet: no jumping or barking as we walked by, no jumping on or pushing over the children, must play well with other dogs, cows, and cats, and must not be afraid of people. To our surprise, Archer passed all the initial tests! We adopted Archer, brought him home, and saw that he had potential. He loves Dale and like any younger dog is driving him crazy with all of his puppy energy.

Dale is now running the property like he used to with Holly. Archer is very good with the girls and other dogs, and loves car rides. He is learning to leave the cows alone, but the cats haven’t been so lucky. Perhaps Archer is trying to herd them, or maybe he just wants to play, but since he has been here our 5 cats have been hard to find. If anyone knows how to stop dogs from chasing cats, we would love to hear about it! We hope that you can come up and visit Archer and enjoy the paradise that he lives in.
~Nicolette

Oregon wines are meant to be on your table, enjoyed with delicious food, family, and friends. Long before McMinnville was named a top foodie town, winemakers were hard at work creating and pairing wines with a variety of foods. The palette-pleasing fruity qualities found in Oregon wines are the perfect complement for a wide variety of ingredients and cooking styles. It is often said what grows together, goes together; an idea at the heart of Oregon’s farm to table movement. That is a statement that couldn’t be truer of Oregon wines and the bountiful farm fresh produce that grows here, too. As with the wine produced throughout the Willamette Valley, the good food found here is a direct result of the quality of each ingredient. In Oregon, chefs and farmers work together to bring the freshest seasonal ingredients directly from farm to table, resulting in the modern day foodie paradise of Willamette Valley. Choose to stay with us at Youngberg Hill Vineyards, and this rich abundance of farm fresh foods and handcrafted wines will be at your fingertips.

If you’re interested in sampling some of the country’s finest Pinor Noir wines, then fall is a wonderful time to plan a trip to Oregon Wine Country. Throughout the fall months, the hillsides across the Willamette Valley are radiant with the colors of fall. Deep purple grapes are set against a backdrop of the brilliant oranges, bright yellows, and deep reds associated with the harvest season. Driving through the valley is stunning, only made better when you stop in our amazing tasting room to sample the wines produced here.

As we head into the fall months, Willamette Valley Wineries are busy getting ready for the harvest season. If you’re looking for some harvest-related fun, then head to the 23rd annual Grape Stomp and Harvest Celebration at Willamette Valley Vineyards on September 21st and 22nd. Visitors from all over the country compete in teams for the title, as well as to earn a trip to Santa Rosa, California for the World Grape Stomp Championships. Come dressed in costumes, enjoy the live music, and get ready for some great family fun in Oregon Wine Country. On Saturday, October 5th, spend the day with the North Willamette Vintners as they prepare for the 2013 Oregon wine harvest during the North Willamette Harvest Trail and Grand Tasting. Here, you’ll learn all about the wine harvest, and enjoy a guided bus tour to three different Willamette Valley wineries for tastings and other harvest-related activities. At Youngberg Hill Vineyards, we’re always looking for volunteers to help us with sorting during the fall harvest. If you’re interested, please email us for more information.

The state of Oregon has a vast array of nature recreation opportunities, and each region of the state has its own special, natural qualities. If you are visiting Oregon from another country or another US State and are interested in taking a hike on your trip, or if you are an Oregon local who is looking for suggestions for getting out into nature this summer, now is the time to start planning, and this page can be a good starting point for you! Hiking Oregon offers so many choices for all kinds of ability levels. This blog will be focused on the Willamette Valley Wine Country, Portland and Salem areas.

Oregon is a cyclers paradise, with no shortage of biking destinations to choose from. Oregon biking offers everything, from easy rides at sea level to exhausting assaults on 10,000-foot peaks. Whether you ride a mountain bike, a road bike, or are looking for a cycling event, Oregon has something to offer you. Explore one of Oregon’s Scenic Bikeways, a unique program to the state that showcases the very best of Oregon, all from the seat of a bike. Travel down one of our nine bikeways for a scenic, historic, and cultural experience unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. These routes have been reviewed, ridden and adopted by locals, in the hopes of helping you plan you’re own two-wheeled Oregon biking adventure. With a diverse array of trails, Oregon’s Scenic Bikeways can accommodate any rider, from beginning to advanced, for day trips or extended, multi-day adventures. Let Youngberg Hill be your base from which you explore the hundreds of miles of roads and trails in Oregon’s beautiful wine country, or simply stop in to Youngberg Hill during your Oregon biking adventure to experience the quiet beauty of the Willamette Valley.

The Jura Suite was originally two, small, separate guest rooms in the Inn that were combined in 1994 to make a larger suite. Although it was always a beautiful room, we knew that we could improve it, and in late December of 2012 we took on the challenge of welcoming in the coming year by giving the Jura a complete makeover!

There were four main focus areas for design; the view, the headboard, the larger bathroom with glass wine sinks, and the fireplace. Everything else fit around these elements. The beautiful original panoramic windows always filled the room with light and gave guests a full view of the valley, so we decided to keep them. It felt great to kick off the Jura remodel by making an energy efficient update that corresponded with our convictions to uphold good environmental practices here at Youngberg Hill . Although we loved the original trim, the chance to change the trim color throughout the entire room in order to give the room some special flare that set it aside from all the rest was simply too fun to pass up. We now enjoy a dark chocolate trim that picks up the tones of the other new additions in the room – the headboard and the wood grains in the exposed beams above.

No, it’s not fall yet in Oregon Wine Country, but we are starting to see the first glimpse of Veraison in the Willamette Valley! Veraison is the ripening process as wine grapes change color from green to a deep blue purple for red wine grapes, autumn colors for grey grapes (or gris), and frosty light green for white grapes. This color change typically takes place in late August/early September. Bergström just facebooked that they are seeing the first signs of Veraison. This is a month earlier than normal. California typically is going through Veraison at this time, and afterward Oregon follows suit, but every year brings something different! Specific to the Willamette Valley, the north end of the valley typically starts Veraison earlier. Since Youngberg Hill is located at a higher altitude, we are usually a couple of weeks behind the majority of vineyards.

As a small, local vineyard, we love to stay connected with and give back to our community. One of the most fun ways to bring people together is through music, and we are excited to be hosting a number of benefit concerts on the Hill this summer, along with free, live music up on the Hill every Thursday night through mid-September!

We are featuring both local McMinnville and Portland-based musicians, who have been making waves state and nationwide, at our events. Some of these artists include The Djangophiles, who are among the world’s masters of Parisian Swing and Gypsy Jazz, singer/songwriter Sara Jackson-Holman, whose powerful compositions have been featured on a number of television shows including “The Ringer,” “90210,” “Castle,” and “Grey’s Anatomy,” and pianist Mike Strickland, whose music has appeared on CBS Sports PGA Golf for multiple seasons, along with NBC, FOX, ABC, and in the major motion pictures “This Christmas” (2007) and “Obsessed” (2009).